Hydrogen is the fuel-cell future but currently it has a number of issues, primarily related to storage(1) and cost.   Cost because getting hydrogen out of a molecule requires a catalyst and efficient catalysts, like platinum, dissolve during the stop-and-go driving of a fuel-cell-powered electric car - as much as 45 percent of the catalyst can be lost during five days. 

You know when gold looks cheap by comparison your energy technology is not ready for the mass market.

Light beams travel in straight lines and don't go around corners, they instead spread through a process known as diffraction.

Researchers at Tel Aviv University have discovered that small beams of light can indeed be bent in a laboratory setting, diffracting much less than a "regular" beam.    These rays are called "Airy beams" after English astronomer Sir George Biddell Airy, who studied the parabolic trajectories of light in rainbows. 

Please indulge me a charming aside from A.A. Milne in order to set the stage for my essay…. (don’t worry, it’s charming)


The House at Pooh Corner (pg 93-94)
In Which Pooh Invents a New Game and Eeyore Joins In

Regarding the recent Nature News article (Transcription: Enhancer makes non-coding RNA. Nature 465, 173-174; 2010) about the discovery of enhancer RNAs (eRNAs) and their apparent link with neuronal activity, an initial question that arises is whether these eRNAs are really a new class of small RNAs. The question stems from the striking similarities between eRNAs and microRNAs.

Autonomous Satellites

How smart does a satellite have to be to function? I'm working on the design of the Project Calliope satellite, and near as I can tell, it doesn't need a brain. All it needs is energy, sensors, the ability to yell or shut up, and a small stuffed animal.

Let's back up a bit. My picosatellite kid has a computer core and a Radiometrix transmitter. I unpacked it and then discussed how the pieces went together. But how minimal can I go?

Arctic Summer 2010 - Hot Or Not?


Will it get very warm in the Arctic this summer?

It is already so warm in many parts of the Arctic that floes which would normally obstruct the free flow of ice for weeks or months are now surviving only days before breaking up.  That is abnormal.  The long term trend in summer peak temperatures shows little rise.  That is because most of the rise has occurred outside of the summer season.

Before moving on, I have to give credit to Neven for the astute observation about summer temperatures.

It's no secret social media is big - every marketing group latches on to the latest fad (even us - we gots the Tweetypages, we gots the Faceyspaceys) and people are using it more and more.   But in the recent past, for many the Internet was just another way to get 'traditional' news, preferably for free.

The CDF Collaboration has recently produced results of a search for Supersymmetric Higgs bosons in events with three or more bottom-quark jets. Here I wish to give just the highlights of this analysis, but before I do I will try to spend 5' on making sense of the previous sentence.

In good order, below I explain first of all 1) what is CDF, 2) what is the Tevatron, 3) what are Higgs bosons from Supersymmetry, 4) how can these be sought with bottom quarks, and 5) what are bottom quark jets. After I am done with these five explanations, those of you who are still here will no doubt appreciate the results I am showing today. Can I make it in 5 minutes ? Sure, but can you read forty lines of text in the same amount of time ?

Babies can grasp information about numbers, space and time before they can speak, and they do so in more complex ways than previously realized, according to new research.

In 1890 William James wrote in "The Principles of Psychology" that the baby's impression of the world as "one great blooming, buzzing confusion."   But modern evidence indicates otherwise.

Babies understand quantity quite well, say Emory University psychologist Stella Lourenco and University College London neuroscientist Matthew Longo, and so much earlier than thought.

There are two aspects to food research; an industry one, where food additives that can make food taste more or less sweet without calories have benefits, and a therapeutic one, like treating patients who over eat.